Per my request, and to my specifications, DaddyMort made shelves to go in Devon’s room.  It fits perfectly in the space available, it’s open on the side so it doesn’t cover the vent and there are cubbies just the right size for some of our bins.

This is just one of the many times I’m thankful to have such a handy husband!!

Here’s the idea so you can make some too.  Pick one ingredient from each of the following categories, mix together with a food processor or Kitchen-Aid and press into an 8×8 pan (we lined ours with plastic wrap so it’s easy to remove and cut.)  Refrigerate until firm and cut into 16 squares.

• Grain (2 cups)
  -Old-fashioned oats
  -Quick Oats
  -Crisp Brown Rice Cereal
  -Granola
• Sweetener (3/4 cup)
  -Honey
  -Agave Nectar
  -Brown Rice Syrup
  -Pure Maple Syrup
• Nut Butter (1 cup)
  -Peanut Butter
  -Almond Butter
  -Cashew Butter
  -Sunflower Nut Butter
• Seeds or Wheat Product (1 cup, except Chia seeds – 1/4 cup)
  -Ground Flaxseed
  -Whole Sesame Seeds
  -Unprocessed Wheat Bran
  -Wheat Germ
  -Pumpkin Seeds
  -Chia Seeds
• Powdered Protein (1 cup)
  -Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
  -Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
• Nuts or Chips (1 cup)
  -Chopped Walnuts
  -Almonds
  -Cashews
  -Sunflower Nuts
  -Dark Chocolate Chips
  -Carob Chips
• Dried Fruit (1 cup)
  -Raisins
  -Dried Cherries
  -Dried Cranberries
  -Dried Goji Berries
  -Chopped Dried Apricots
  -Chopped Dates
  -Chopped Prunes
  -Chopped Figs

Turns out, the world’s best big sister loved having her brother in the tub with her and wanted him to join her on her next bath.  So we tried putting his little tub in the big tub.  We thought that if the little tub had more water than the big tub, combined with his weight, that it would stay put.  Not so much.  So – I rolled up my pants again to help hold his tub in place during the bath.

The next bath night, we tried the Bumbo.  It still floats, but has been the best option by far.

Here’s the very happy big sister, with the leary little brother.  You can tell by the look on his face that he’s worried about being squirted by Chloe’s unicorn…

We’re thinking about getting one of these to make bath time easier.  Has anyone ever used one before??  Or have any other ideas about bathing a little one with an older sibling??

-Chloe was playing with her Little People carnival, then laid down on the floor and said, “I’m feeling kinda crumbly…”  That’s right folks – not crummy – crumbly!!

-While getting dressed to take her to the doctor, DaddyMort said, “Thank goodness Chloe’s sick.  I almost washed these jeans with a chapstick in the pocket.”

-Chloe was having trouble sleeping during her nap on Tuesday.  After going in a few times to try to comfort her, DaddyMort said, “Try to get some good rest.”  Chloe replied in her saddest voice, with tears in her eyes, “I’m trying, daddy.  I’m trying.”

-When Devon and I walked in the door Tuesday night, Chloe informed me that she needed to take a bath that night to “wash the germs off me” so she could touch Devon’s hands again.  For a little girl who loves her little brother, and loves to love on him, she’s had a lot of trouble with limits on touching him while sick.

Her fever seemed to break yesterday afternoon and she started eating something other than yogurt at dinnertime.  Although she was a bit cranky this morning, I’m hoping she’s back to her sassy little self soon.

For the first year of Chloe’s life, we had a monthly monkey picture.  So far with Devon, we have an “every 5 weeks or so” lion picture.  Here are his first 2:

5.5 Weeks

10.5 weeks

I can’t believe how big he’s getting already!!  In this picture he’s wearing (and barely fitting into) jammies his sister was wearing at 4 months.  He was 10 weeks at his 2-month check-up and weighed in at 14lb, 4oz and is 23 inches long.  He was about 88th percentile for weight, 50th for height and a mere 95th percentile for head size (a pinhead compared to his sister )

I started back to work part-time last week and Devon seems to be slowly adjusting to spending his mornings at MissK’s.  After my days off for Christmas next week, I’ll be going back to my full 30 hours a week and Devon will be spending his days at MissK’s – much to the delight of his sister.    She already loves to “take care of” Devon and MissK’s son, who is a month older than Devon, and can’t stop talking about having him there all day.  Hopefully the reality is as great as she thinks it will be!!

My kiddos are in the middle of this group of cuties. These are the friends they spend their days with.

Devon is only eating once a night, which is much better than his sister was doing at this age, although he’s been waking up more frequently as of late.  I know we’ll get there and figure it out though.  He spends some time in his Bumbo and has tried out his exersaucer.  I’m very excited about this stage of his babyhood and am trying to just soak it all in, because I know how quickly it will all pass this time around!!

Ingredients:

• 14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 3/4 cup Peanut Butter
• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• Granulated Sugar
• Chocolate Stars (~48)

Growing up, I made these cookies with my mom at Christmas almost every year.  When Aaron and I made Christmas treats together for the first time, we realized he grew up with them as well, just with a different name.  This year, Chloe helped me make them for the first time in our coordinating aprons.

These are a good cookie to make with kids, because even though the dough balls were filled with fingerprints and holes after Chloe rolled them in sugar, they all disappeared when the chocolate star was pressed down.

Chloe Mae did a great job – and was very excited to enjoy the fruits of her labor after dinner

With Christmas approaching this year, I decided to be brave and make aprons for Chloe and her friend at MissK’s.  Then I realized I better make her one for home as well if I was making them.  And I couldn’t make aprons for the girls without making one for MissK.  I was hoping I would have enough fabric to make one for myself as well (turns out, I did )  I bought all the supplies, then they sat around the house for a few weeks while I gathered my courage.  This week, I took the plunge and in a surprisingly short amount of time, got all the aprons done.  (Thanks to DaddyMort for doing all the ironing!!)  I decided they should be early Christmas presents, so we could use them for our holiday baking.

For the adults, I used this tutorial.  And to add a little fun, I followed these directions to make a decorative flower.  I pretty much followed the directions – the only change was adding a safety pin to the flower so it’s removable for washing.  Here’s the finished product.

For the girls, I used this tutorial as a guide.  I shortened up the length a little, since I was making these for toddlers, not older kids.  I skipped the pocket and used ribbon for the straps instead of fabric.  The neck straps don’t seem to stay in place with the D-rings, although using the ribbon may be the reason the D-rings don’t really work.  I’m going  try tying the ribbon through the rings or putting some velcro dots on the neck strap to hold it in place better.  So here’s what they look like:

Why does a family of four need two deep freezes? Because this is what two weeks worth of frozen breastmilk looks like. A couple months worth pretty much fills up a deep freeze. And a full deep freeze gives this mama peace of mind!

After decorating the tree upstairs, Chloe Mae and DaddyMort put this tree up in her playroom.  She thought it was pretty darn fun and even got a stool out so she could hang more ornaments on the tree.

Then she got to play with her Little People Nativity Set.  It’s a hand-me-down toy that someone gave us after Christmas last year and it’s a BIG hit!!  Although we need to work on the specifics of the story a bit, because she put baby Jesus on top of the manger, where the angel is supposed to be…

On Friday, we decided to take advantage of my last day at home and try our hand at making these ornaments.  Chloe loved every step of the process – mixing the dough, rolling it out and cutting out shapes.

By far though, her favorite was decorating them.

Aren’t they gorgeous??

After perfecting her skills making ornaments, she was ready to make sugar cookies to decorate during our Cookie Exchange.  This was the first year we were going to have little ones helping us decorate, so I pulled out all the fixin’s – 7 colors of frosting, 4 kinds of sprinkles, M&M’s, mini chocolate chips, peppermint chips and 8 different shapes of cookies.

Most importantly, to Chloe at least, was the classic ‘Christmas Purple’ frosting.

She and her friends were decorating machines.  Only a few knives and spoons were licked and about half the M&M’s actually made it on cookies and not into little mouths.

This is a sampling of Chloe’s cookies.  We’ll be available for catering soon

With 2 weeks left until Christmas, we still have presents to buy and wrap, more cookies to make and the Christmas Program at church, where Chloe will be performing Joy to the World and Away in a Manger.  Oh, and a few more Christmas movies if DaddyMort has anything to say about it!!

DaddyMort says, “No. You don’t need to play with that.”

Chloe responded, “Yeah. I give big push.”

DaddyMort said, “I said no.”

To which Chloe quickly replied, “I said yes.”

At this point, I started laughing and had to turn away.  But it got better…

DaddyMort calmly responded with, “If you give the swing a big push, you’ll go to time out, because I told you not to.”

Then, in her sweetest voice, Chloe asked, “I give it a little push daddy??”

He was chuckling by this point as well and gave in, giving her permission to do a little push.